The Biggest Little Farm

The light shines brightly in this humble holistic documentary.

There's a lot of well-researched well-documented logical doom and gloom out there, to which The Biggest Little Farm resiliently responds.

The situation's bleak and new terms are being created to discuss climate change, but individuals are still tilling new ground, and finding innovative ways to persevere.

Protests are paramount.

They're important to raise awareness and demonstrate active criticisms.

Purchasing decisions effectively sustain them too, inasmuch as what you buy directly effects climate change.

I'm not perfect, I don't make 100% environmentally conscious decisions all the time, but I have cut most of the meat out of my diet, recycle everything I can, usually purchase green, and currently snack on fruit rather than chips much more frequently.

It's handy that many grocery stores are selling sliced fruit in small containers (which will hopefully become biodegradable) in Montréal for 2 to 3 dollars a piece.

If the choice is between a helping of pineapple or a bag of chips for $2.50 when I don't have much time and need a quick snack, the decision's a no-brainer, I'm buying pineapple every time.

Businesses do respond when they start losing money, and if there's people powered momentum to make significant impacts, plastic can be replaced by green alternatives, and our reliance on oil can become much less overwhelming.

When I see how many young people attend climate change protests I'm encouraged.

They clearly care about their future and the future of our planet as well.

If even a figure as low as 60% of them grew up to start environmentally friendly businesses and/or farms, selling environmentally friendly products for competitive prices, products perhaps generated by a hemp revolution like the one mentioned in the film Grass and others, while making environmentally friendly purchasing decisions themselves, greenhouse gas emissions would certainly decrease, and biodegradable containers could seriously reduce plastic waste.

We live within a capitalist system and it's through capitalism that we can fight global warming.

Big money tracks how people spend and if it anticipates mass profits in green markets it will lucratively respond.

If North Americans boycotted McDonald's for a month mouth watering vegetarian and vegan options would definitely appear on its menu, as they have on A & W's without a boycott.

Scrumptiously so.

The Biggest Little Farm's about biodiversity, about farming symbiotically with nature.

The Chester's don't just plant one crop, they plant dozens, and cultivate an awe-inspiring abundance of different foods.

They encounter serious setbacks as they embrace sustainable farming, hiring farm whisperer Alan York to guide them along the way.

They wait it out.

They find solutions.

Symbiotic solutions.

Evergreen solutions.

When snails threaten their fruit trees, their ducks devour the snails. When birds threaten their crops, birds of prey move in to challenge them. When gophers threaten their produce, every animal from miles around shows up to chase them. When torrential rains threaten their farm, its bountiful greens prevent catastrophic run off.

They work with nature in an inspiring way that must make David Suzuki and David Attenborough proud.

It's like they've planted a farm in the forest without harming the animals and are still making a steady profit.

The forest animals are even encouraged to live there, with resident owls numbering close to 100.

It's game changing inclusive brilliant revolutionary farming that radiates distinct harmonies through its patient biodiverse strengths.

And it works, at least it's working for them, although they don't shy away from presenting hardships endured.

Our Planet passionately argues that maintaining biodiversity is integral to fighting climate change and preventing species from going extinct.

If more people farmed like the Chester's in The Biggest Little Farm, if more disposable containers and other products were made with hemp, if more green businesses started popping up, and more people made regular greener purchases while out and about, we would significantly reduce greenhouse gasses, and live more enriching lives.

A definite must see.

You can visit Apricot Lane Farms in California too.

They've expanded into ecotourism.

Mind-blowing game changing impacts.

One of my favourite films.

Arctic

Lost in a frozen wilderness, textbook survival skills sustainably applied.

Waiting patiently at his fortunate crash site, there's little to do but sit back and be rescued.

Well-attuned to nature and the forbidding crux of its bounty, he agilely lives off fish calmly hooked in a lake nearby.

He's been there some time, although we're not sure how long, when a helicopter appears with ample room for one more.

But the winds are treacherous and they fiercely express themselves, the helicopter soon blindly forsaken upon the cold disingenuous unforgiving snow below.

There's one survivor (Maria Thelma Smáradóttir as The Survivor).

And her health's declining.

A trusty map leads the way to a destination.

Not too far away.

Alternative logic computes.

And they set out to make direct contact.

Spring is readily approaching in Joe Penna's wild Arctic, as defiance rigorously scorns stark obstinacy.

The rules are followed, Overgård (Mads Mikkelsen) has strictly abided by tried and true methods, yet he still must embrace calculated risk, eventually, to save a life almost lost saving his.

Trying to save his.

It makes for a less reckless survival film, or one that first demonstrates what you should do if you've come to be lost, before finding a compelling reason to justify cinematic extravagance.

Extravagance is an unfair word.

Arctic is much more clever.

Since Spring is approaching, it makes sense that the snow isn't reliable, and that polar bears are foraging inland.

It can be dangerous to take refuge in a cave in such regions, I imagine, so the bear's appearance isn't as melodramatic as it sounds.

Plus the bear's been hanging around for a while.

When a storm sets in, Overgård builds a snow fort, or shelter, which is exactly what you should do, as far as I know.

You should never leave the crash sight, but if there is a potential refuge not that far away, and you have a map, and one of your party is dying, it makes sense to break with tradition, and head out into the bleak unknown.

And while the existence of maps that specify details of highly remote regions is a triumph of cartographical craftspersonship, whether or not every single detail has been meticulously recorded is a matter for geographical dispute.

Plus we don't know anything about Overgård, not even his name really, the film doesn't waste time introducing him and the meeting he's theoretically late for and the family he hypothetically misses, we just meet him after he's crash landed in the arctic, and has engaged in blunt death-defying survival.

Penna clearly asked himself, "how do I make a survival film that has cinematic appeal but isn't fantastic or maudlin or cheesy or sensational?", and the result is the best winter survival film I've seen.

Clear headed rational excitement.

Literary in a way.

Breathtaking.